Upper Red Lake - Jan. 6-8, 2006 My trip up to Upper Red Lake had the same tone as my last few trips up, except this time, I caught a crappie. The bite has been tough for many people, myself included, and is very humbling at times. I brought 2 of my good friends up to the shack for the weekend. Adam has been to URL with me in the past and knows what this lake can be like. My other friend Matt is originally from Iowa, has ice fished extensively in the Spirit Lake/Okoboji area, but has never been to Upper Red or northern MN before ice fishing. I told Matt that he would have a blast no matter what happens just being a part of the URL experience and the "sleeper shack" lifestyle that goes along with it.

We arrived at the shack fairly late Friday night. The funny thing about late Friday night is Adam had the hot hole (Dan Thiem, you know what hole that was!) and had 7 or 8 bites that evening and missed or lost every single one of them. I only saw one of the fish he had on and it was a northern pike, approximately 7" long that was lost right at the top of the hole. I roll out of bed fairly early Saturday morning, drop my line down the hole, and have a fat 17" walleye in the house not more than 2 minutes later! What a way to wake up, eh? Matt was completely amazed by that. Heck, I was too. Nothing like setting the hook while you are still in you sleeping bag. Later that afternoon, we headed around to Hillman's Rd to fish out of portables to try something new. We were approximately 4 1/2 miles out on the road and north and concentrated on that area for the sundown bite. We had a bunch of walleyes before the sun hit the horizon and then had a little lull in the action. About 6 o'clock, I had a fish come about 1-1/2' off the bottom and absolutely annihilate my Scenic Tackle Go-Devil tipped with a minnow head. And to my surpise... a crappie popped out of the hole!! Our one and only crappie for the trip and my 1st for the hardwater season up there. The bite in general was very light, lots of lookers but not many takers. For every 5 or 6 fish to come on my Marcum flasher, only 1 would hit. Thats why I thought this crappie was odd because it just hammered my spoon with no hesitation.

I would like to add that the ice road conditions on both Hillman's and Roger's roads are very good! However, take it slow on Hillman's Rd because there are some bumps out there that I never saw coming! I'm not sure how my auger stayed in the truck bed on that one series of drifts/bumps! Ice is still in the 16" range and varies greatly when you get off the road and start augering holes. Stick to the clear ice and drive around the drifts when possible. The ice under the snowdrifts is not as thick as the ice where there is no snow. I didn't meausure ice thickness but I would guess variation in a small area to be between 14"-18" where we were fishing. On a side note, the perch are going nuts and it wouldn't take too many to make a nice meal in the ice shack. Average size is running 9 1/2- 10 1/2 inches.